FEATURED ETSY SHOP - ETHEREAL BEGINNINGS..."The Time for Luxury is Now!"

Body Butter Pomegranate Mango Free Shipping

WELCOME, Marie and her Etsy shop, ETHEREAL BEGINNINGS!  As Marie, states in her shop announcement...."The time for luxury is now!" 

Don't we all deserve to take some time and pamper ourselves with delightful, good smelling, "Lotions, Butters, Creams, Perfumes, Spritzers, Body Wash, Shaving, Bubble Bath, Bath Salts and more ~ Naturally Handmade"....OF COURSE WE DO!  These are some of the delightful products you will find when you pay a visit to ETHEREAL BEGINNINGS.  Marie also offers free shipping.

Take a moment to learn a bit more about Marie and how she started on her venture of creating bath and beauty products. You really must read her shop's "Profile", to see all the delicious sounding indredients used in her products.

What led you to start creating your art/craft?

I have always wanted to have my own business; to be my own boss. But I wanted my business to be something I was passionate about. A friend of mine came to me one day and said that she had developed allergic reactions to the soaps and perfumes she had been using for years. She was quite disappointed as she really loved the scents she had been purchasing. She felt that she would never be able to use anything scented ever again. Then at a social gathering she had an allergic reaction after she had drank a glass of wine. It was discovered that she was allergic to alcohol. I began investigating and we discerned that it was the alcohol and chemical additives in the soaps and perfumes she was allergic too and not the scents as she had originally thought. During my research for her, I became enthralled with learning about aromatherapy, essential oils, botanicals and naturally made products. I began experimenting and formulating. Now two years later, here I am selling my handmade bath and beauty products and loving every minute of it.

How did you decide what medium you wanted to work with?

I am a stay-at-home mom with two beautiful daughters and they are just not ready for me to work outside the home. A friend of mine told me about Etsy and how wonderful it would be to be able to stay at home with my girls and run an online business. The best of both worlds.

What aspect of creating your art/craft do you the the most enjoyable?

Developing the scents is my favourite aspect of my craft. While it can sometimes be comical and disappointing when I experiment, I know that somehow I will come up with the right formulation. There are so many new things I still have yet to try and master. I'm looking forward to continuing with my experimentations.

If you had to choose a fruit OR a vegetable to describe your art/craft, what would you choose and why?

A fruit or vegetable, oh my...I would have to say something exotic like passion fruit because it describes the image of what I make. I want my customers to feel pampered, luxurious and exotic when they use my products.

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"Our shaving cream provides the ultimate shaving experience. Enrich your skin with luxurious lather that softens the skin, leaving it refreshed and silky smooth".

Scent: A mysterious sweet, earthy aroma. Notes of amber, patchouli, rose and sandalwood blends with nuances of jasmine and citrus to bring out the subtle spice undertones. Base notes of vanilla and powder completes this scent.
 
If you had to choose one other medium in which to display your "creativity", what would that be and why?

Someday when my girls are grown, I would love to have a B&M (brick and mortar) shop. It is my ultimate dream.

What message, if any, do you want to convey with your art/craft?

 My message is "The Time for Luxury is Now". In our society today, we don't take enough time for ourselves. My favourite thing to do when I have time to myself is to soak in a tub with luxurious bubbles or aromatic bath salts. I want my customers to experience that same dreamy feeling that my scents can bring.  They don't have to wait for a two or three hour block of time to themselves. Just 10 minutes in a quiet place massaging their wrists and hands with my body lotion or body butter can lift a person's spirits ten fold and turn a stressful day into a stress free day.

What advice do you have for other artists/crafters?

I have learned so much in my short time on Etsy. It has been a blessed experience. My advice is  a) to befriend many online sellers, their advice and support is boundless; b) think outside the box, don't recreate the wheel, but try to be inventive when it comes to promotion, advertising etc. and c) even when you are having a slow sales period, remember why you started this venture, let your crafting rejuvenate and re-center yourself ~ you'd be surprised how it can suddenly turn things around.

Marie, thanks for a great interview.  You have some delightful sounding products!  May your dreams all come true.


To learn more about Marie and her ETHEREAL BEGINNINGS products, be sure to visit the links below.

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FEATURED ETSY SHOP - GREENFIELD SOAPS

Black Raspberry Vanilla Handmade Soap

Don't you just love the names of the different soaps that you see out on the shops on Etsy. It makes one want to eat them!! Melanie said the above soap is one of her best sellers, and I can see why...the name itself makes you want to have it. GREENFIELD SOAPS is the first "soap maker" I've had out here as a featured shop, and I'm very happy to welcome Melanie and her GREENFIELD SOAPS.

OK, Melanie, tell us a bit about how you got started on this venture and what keeps you motivated.

What led you to start creating your art/craft?

Well, everything started when I first started making candles about 8 years ago. I loved to burn them, but they were too expensive, and I was never happy with the way they smelled or burned. So I started to learn candlemaking, and joined several helpful forums. Many of the girls over there made soap as well, and I became interested. I spent months reading over thier notes and gathering as much information on it as I could. Finally I got up the nerve to make my first batch. I used ingredients I had bought from the grocery store, and poured it into a baby wipe container. From there I was hooked. I quickly over ran my house, my friends and my family with bars of soap. My confidence grew and I knew it was time to start selling. Four years later, soap, candles and bathbombs are my full time job. Even thousands of bars later, I still get excited everytime I remove a fresh log of soap from the mold.

How did you decide what medium you wanted to work with?

Well most of my soaps are made from Olive, Coconut, Palm, Palm Kernal and Soybean oil. I chose these because it creates a lasting bar of soap that lathers wonderfully, and leaves your skin feeling soft and clean. For my bathbombs, I spend a lot of time playing with the oil combination. I hated soaking in the tub, then stepping out only to feel greasy. I finally started adding Shea butter to the bombs, and Wow what a difference. I love it because it leaves you so soft and the greasy feeling is gone. Usually once someone tries a bomb, their hooked.

If you had to choose a fruit OR a vegetable, to describe your art/craft, what would you choose, and why?

An orange, pretty to look at or display in a nice dish. Smells wonderful. A little challenging to get into at times, but the end result is so worth it.

If you had to choose one other medium in which to display your “creativity”, what would that be, and why?

I love working with fabrics and wools. My grandmother taught me sewing, knitting, crochet and counted cross stitch. Whenever I'm at my machine, or stitching away I still feel close to her even though she is gone. I also find these crafts relaxing. It's a nice way to take a time out after the kids are in bed.

What message, if any, do you want to convey with your art/craft?

I don't really know if my soaps or bombs have a message. I love watching people pick them up, admire them, smell them. I like knowing that they are going to enjoy using what I make.

What advice do you have for other artists/crafters?

Stick with it. Even if your craft seems challenging at times, even if things don't seem to be going right, you'll never get any better if you just walk away. If your looking to turn your craft into a business, it can be challanging at times. Learning the ins and outs of running a business can be harder to learn then the craft itself (and not nearly as fun), but I love being able to spend my day creating, I love working with customers, and I love the fact that it gives me the freedom to be so involved in my kids lives.

Melanie, thanks so much for taking the time to share your thoughts and ideas with us. Great interview. Be sure to visit GREENFIELD SOAPS to see what other flavors and products that Melanie creates.

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FEATURED ETSY SHOP - Magickal Realism Natural Perfumery by Diana Rajchel

BOOK DUST...now that is a very original name for a perfume!! This is how Diana of NATURAL PERFUMERY on Etsy explains how she came up with this name for one of her perfumes...

One of my favorite places, everywhere I live, is the library. Even if I can find comfort nowhere else, I will in a building designated for housing row after row of books. It's the calming scent of paper and aging ink, the comfort of ancient glues and gathering dust as books wait for me to find them and open my mind to their adventures. This is a highly complex fragrance, with an herbal accord of dill and chamomile, layered in with notes of magnolia, lotus, cypress and cardamom and a gentle hint of honeysuckle and verbena.

The ingredients sound very magical and exciting to me! Let's learn more about Diana, and how she got started in her "perfumery" business.

What led you to start creating your art/craft?

Perfumery was an accident, mostly. I was looking to raise book money post-college for my occult studies, and taking stock of what I had on hand that I understood well enough to work with, I went with creating ritual oils. I posted a listing for a "custom" blend on Ebay, and the very first person who bid had a request for 7-8 items, and was very pleased with my work. It mushroomed from there into something that took over my entire kitchen. EventuallyI dropped the ritual oil and went straight on into authentic perfume, because aesthetic became a magical practice in and of itself.

How did you decide what medium you wanted to work with?

I think that really, it chose me. A lot of people in my line of practice had an interest in herbs and oils, but didn't really understand them; I had a good intuitive and practical knack for the plants and the chemicals I was working with, along with a lifelong special relationship to plant life. It's not just my ideas of how something should smell, but the continued cyclic process of the plants captured in the formulas.

What aspect of creating your art/craft do you find the most enjoyable?

I love all of it, but I think most of all the conceptualization. Determining what scent wants to be expressed and what chemicals want to express it, is a joyous discovery (I'm very animistic in my process.) Also, the concepts that are expressed through me are so much more interesting than what I was used to seeing in perfume. Sex is beyond great, but bottling up humour is really fun, too.

If you had to choose a fruit OR a vegetable, to describe your art/craft, what would you choose, and why?

I'd go with a pomgranite - fraught with mystery, a few blind spots, and stuff you can't use right away is part of the nature of the perfuming trade. But ultimately, very rich and well worth the effort, if only you're willing to get just a bit messy in the process of discovery.

What message, if any, do you want to convey with your art/craft?

Each bottle really does have its own message, and the way it interacts with a person's individual chemistry is part of that conversation. I think if I had to choose a single message, it would be that it's important to get out of your head and back into your body; it's a fuller experience that leads to a richer life.

What advice do you have for other artists/crafters?

Have something else to do. Crafting and art creation is super important. However, if all you do with your time is your art - well, that way lies madness, repetition and an eventual loss of originality. I (try to) work out, cook, clean, write, and I get into a few fan forums here and there (mainly Daria and Doctor Who, some In Plain Sight.) This is what works for me, and it keeps me balanced as well as proving to be a font of inspiration for me. It's not goofing off unless you do it all day - in fact, scheduling some goof off time, you will find yourself much saner and more balanced.

Diana...thanks for taking the time to give us a "peek" into what makes you tick as a "perfumery" artist. Great answers! Be sure to visit MAGIKAL REALISM NATURAL PERFUMERY to see what other intriguing fragrances Diana has developed. Also, click on any of the links below to learn more about Diana and her other areas of interest.

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FEATURED ETSY SHOP - MIXOLOGY MAKEUP - The Healthy Makeup Alternative

WELCOME, Rae of MIXOLOGY MAKEUP. Read in Rae's own words how she got started creating her own line of makeup, and be sure to visit her MIXOLOGY MAKEUP shop out on Etsy. I'm sure Rae would be delighted to answer any questions you may have!


What led you to start creating your art/craft?
A few things - I have always wanted to do my own makeup line so a few years back I looked into what it would take to do it and discovered that having a company make it and package it is very expensive and what I would have to sell it for, I wouldn't even buy. So began the research and the learning process of making mineral makeup and Mixology was born! I was also having problems with my skin breaking out so I tried wearing foundations to cover it up and I would break out more cause I am super sensitive! So these two things really motivated me to learn more!

How did you decide what medium you wanted to work with?
I needed a creative outlet to compensate for my desk job at the time and this filled the void and took on a life of its own, and brought me to this place today! Makeup has always been a live form of art for me too when appling it on people, and making it just was a natural extension of that too.

What aspect of creating your art/craft do you find the most enjoyable?
Oh the eye shadows are my favorite! I love colors and inventing shades - lol, I have over 50 some odd eye shadows and more that are not listed!

If you had to choose a fruit OR a vegetable, to describe your art/craft, what would you choose, and why?
Hmmmmm..... I would choose a starfruit! 1 - its a cool name, like Mixology ;) 2- they are kinda rough on the outside but once you open them up and taste the fruit it's all sweet, kinda like moi!

If you had to choose one other medium in which to display your “creativity”, what would that be, and why?
Acting - its what started me in this love of makeup, I always had to do my own for shows/film, and then eventually for everyone else. Acting really gave me confidence and brought me out of the shy shell I was in.

What message, if any, do you want to convey with your art/craft?
Beauty does not have to be painful! Or harmful for that matter... I strive to make quality makeup at affordable prices that is free of harmful junk so we stop putting it into our bodies! Also, that we can take something that is considered vain in the world's eyes and do something positive with it, like sponsoring a Water Well in Africa through makeup sales on our site.

What advice do you have for other artists/crafters?
Love what you do! Don't sell the house when you have a day or week without sales and always put your customers first, they help you become the company/artist you want to be! Oh and don't burn your eyes out in the forums - they are addicting!

RAE, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and ideas with us! I LOVED your answers and was happy to learn a bit about you and your work. I especially like the idea that your products don't have any of the harmful ingredients that a lot of products do!! It is also wonderful that you are donating a portion of each of your sales for a well in Africa!! Great job! Be sure to visit MIXOLOGY MAKEUP by clicking on the links below!

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